Intense competition between tenants is creating a race to rent as the amount of time listings are up for gets shorter, figures compiled for the BBC show.
Two-bedroom rental homes are listed on Zoopla for an average of 25 days, some 10 days less than the pre-pandemic average, estate agency Savills said.
High demand and a lack of available properties are forcing potential tenants to make an almost immediate decision on whether to apply for a tenancy.
Agents and landlords say the situation is unlikely to change without more investment in the sector. Adrian Draude, 32, admitted he and his wife were ill-prepared for the level of competition they faced when searching for a flat after returning from their honeymoon.
“We found properties [on listings sites] that were the perfect fit, saved them for later, went back that day and they had already disappeared,” he said.
They have recently found a place in Guildford, Surrey, but Adrian described the process as “aggravating”.
“You’d see a place – one minute it was there, and the next it had gone.The couple needed to rent because house prices and high mortgage rates had “turned our dream of owning our own home into a distant fantasy”, Adrian said. They had been saving diligently for years. To do so, he moved back in with his parents for three years.
Returning to, or extending a stay in, the family home is one impact of rapidly rising rents, battles to find property in the lettings sector, and the high cost of becoming a first-time buyer.
Official figures revealed 3.6 million people aged between 20 and 34, including a third of young men, were living with their parents last year.
Source: BBC
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